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| Fidel Castro rails against 'Brother Obama' after US president's trip to Cuba | Fidel Castro rails against 'Brother Obama' after US president's trip to Cuba |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Fidel Castro has responded to Barack Obama’s historic trip to Cuba with a long, bristling letter that recounts the history of US aggression against Cuba. Castro writes: “We don’t need the empire to give us any presents.” | Fidel Castro has responded to Barack Obama’s historic trip to Cuba with a long, bristling letter that recounts the history of US aggression against Cuba. Castro writes: “We don’t need the empire to give us any presents.” |
| The 1,500-word letter in state media, titled “Brother Obama”, was Castro’s first response to the president’s three-day visit last week, in which the American president said he had come to bury the two countries’ history of cold war hostility. | |
| Obama did not meet the 89-year-old Fidel Castro on the trip but met several times with his 84-year-old brother Raúl Castro, the current Cuban president. | Obama did not meet the 89-year-old Fidel Castro on the trip but met several times with his 84-year-old brother Raúl Castro, the current Cuban president. |
| Related: Smiles all around after Obama's Cuba visit – but which side got more out of it? | Related: Smiles all around after Obama's Cuba visit – but which side got more out of it? |
| Obama’s visit was intended to build irreversible momentum behind his opening with Cuba and to convince the Cuban people and the Cuban government that a half-century of US attempts to overthrow the communist government had ended, allowing Cuba to reform its economy and political system more quickly. | |
| Fidel Castro wrote of Obama: “My modest suggestion is that he reflects and doesn’t try to develop theories about Cuban politics.” | Fidel Castro wrote of Obama: “My modest suggestion is that he reflects and doesn’t try to develop theories about Cuban politics.” |
| Castro, who led Cuba for decades before handing power to his brother in 2008, was legendary for his hours-long, all-encompassing speeches. His letter contrasts sharply with Obama’s tightly focused speech in Havana last week. | Castro, who led Cuba for decades before handing power to his brother in 2008, was legendary for his hours-long, all-encompassing speeches. His letter contrasts sharply with Obama’s tightly focused speech in Havana last week. |
| Castro’s letter reflects that style, presenting a sharp contrast to the Spaniards and reviewing the historical roles of Cuban independence heroes José Marti, Antonio Maceo and Máximo Gómez. | |
| Castro goes over crucial sections of Obama’s speech line by line, engaging in an ex post facto dialogue with the American president with pointed critiques of perceived slights and insults, including Obama’s failure to give credit to indigenous Cubans and Castro’s prohibition of racial segregation after coming to power in 1959. | Castro goes over crucial sections of Obama’s speech line by line, engaging in an ex post facto dialogue with the American president with pointed critiques of perceived slights and insults, including Obama’s failure to give credit to indigenous Cubans and Castro’s prohibition of racial segregation after coming to power in 1959. |
| Quoting Obama’s declaration that “it is time, now, for us to leave the past behind”, the man who shaped Cuba in the second half of the 20th century writes: “I imagine that any one of us ran the risk of having a heart attack on hearing these words from the president of the United States.” | |
| Castro then returns to a review of a half-century of US aggression against Cuba. Those events include the decades-long trade embargo against the island; the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack; and the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that was backed by exiles who took refuge in the US. | Castro then returns to a review of a half-century of US aggression against Cuba. Those events include the decades-long trade embargo against the island; the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack; and the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that was backed by exiles who took refuge in the US. |
| He ends with a dig at the Obama administration’s drive to increase business ties with Cuba. The Obama administration says re-establishing economic ties with the US will be a boon for Cuba, whose centrally planned economy has struggled to escape from overdependence on imports and a chronic shortage of hard currency. | |
| The focus on US-Cuba business ties appears to have particularly rankled Castro, who nationalized US companies after coming to power in 1959 and establishing the communist system into which his brother is now introducing gradual market-based reforms. | The focus on US-Cuba business ties appears to have particularly rankled Castro, who nationalized US companies after coming to power in 1959 and establishing the communist system into which his brother is now introducing gradual market-based reforms. |
| “No one should pretend that the people of this noble and selfless country will renounce its glory and its rights,” he wrote. “We are capable of producing the food and material wealth that we need with the work and intelligence of our people.” | “No one should pretend that the people of this noble and selfless country will renounce its glory and its rights,” he wrote. “We are capable of producing the food and material wealth that we need with the work and intelligence of our people.” |